Jaspers Winter Recap

It is no secret that the Men’s Basketball team was struggling to start off the season. They did notch impressive home wins against Fordham and Eastern Kentucky, but with senior forward Rich Williams sidelined with a knee injury the team struggled.

Recently, the team has found its form. After starting conference play 0-5 and 5-11 overall, the Jaspers have won two straight conference games in Draddy Gym. The first being a deciding nine-point victory over Niagara, and most recently topping first place Rider by just three points.

After the win against Niagara last Tuesday, head coach Steve Masiello was confident that in his team and their experience can still carry them to late March Basketball.

“If I was everyone else I would panic,” said Masiello, “We have the blueprint… but you know what, we’ll get there and we’ll be ready come March.”

Masiello emphasized the importance of the team, and after Friday’s win against the Rider Broncs, Masiello continued to harp on his team’s willingness to come together for a win.

“These guys [Waterman and Turner] especially, you know, they’ll go 0-10 if we can get a win” said Masiello.

The team still has questions it needs to be answered, most importantly, the status of senior forward Rich Williams and whether he will redshirt or not. The Jaspers have also suffered from slow starts this season, a problem that Williams’ high energy could solve.

Manhattan continues their home-stand this Tuesday against rival Iona, as Masiello and the Jaspers look for their third straight conference win.

Women’s Basketball

The Women’s Basketball team has also had a rough 2016-2017 season. They have only managed to get one conference win so far against their six losses 5-11.

One bright part of their team has been junior guard Amani Tatum, who recently went down with an injury. Although she is expected to return soon, the offense has been lost without her leadership.

The team jumps back into with a game Sunday night against Niagara at home.

The Women’s basketball team failed to offer a statement on the rest of their season.

Track and Field

The Track and Field Team has been a staple of success at Manhattan College since Head Coach Dan Mecca took over.

However, the past couple of years have proven to be tougher for the Jaspers, as they’ve fallen to Monmouth in the MAAC tournament in both the winter and spring of the past two seasons. Coach Mecca remains optimistic, and has faith in his upperclassman to lead both the Men and Women’s team to victory.

“We have a good set of team captains,” said Coach Mecca, “Dennis Erickson, Chris Sandoli, Maddie Ardnt, Cathy Kadet, John Dove, Kelly Gorman, Love Litzell, and Lina Bengston; there all very good athletes and they’ll help to motivate our younger group.”

The team will be participating in the smaller Fordham Invitational this weekend, as they continue their campaign leading up the MAAC tournament, which will take the team to Staten Island, Manhattan, and Boston Massachusetts.

Swimming and Diving

In his first season as head coach, previous assistant Joe Murtha has watched his Manhattan team continue to compete week in and week out.

The 2016-2017 season has the Jaspers currently standing at five wins, four Losses, and one third place finish. Coach Murtha is happy with the group he has and thinks that his team has put in the proper effort to continue their trend as perennial MAAC Championship competitors.

“We just got back from San Diego, which was eight days of the hardest training we’ve done as a team,” said Coach Murtha, “We’ve got some really strong seniors leading the way, and we have a great freshman class.”

Coach Murtha is planning on using the next few weeks to experiment and find what works in anticipation for MAAC’s. The Men’s team has one meet left before MAACs and the Women have two, the MAAC meet will take place the from Feb. 8 to Feb. 11 and will be held in Buffalo, New York.

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